Windows, patio doors, partitioning walls, and selectively positionable covering arrangements of the type wherein a first panel, such as a door, or a window, or a panel, or a blind is moved from a first to a second position relative to a portion of an opening whereby opening or closing a window opening, doorway, portion of a room and the like opening defined in the mounting frame of the covering panels are known.
Depending upon the application, the covering panels are generally rectangular, and the opposite horizontal or vertical end portions of the framed covering panels are mounted in a track of a frame or sash. In operation, at least one of the covering panels tilts and/or slides relative to its mounting.
Illustrative covering arrangements are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,546,866 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 2012/0111509 A1., U.S. Pat. No. 7,861,475 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,258 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 7,647,728 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,282, E.P. Pat. No. 1507057, U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,377, U.S. Pat. No. 6,860,064 B2, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,113,552.
While suitable for their intended purposes, there is an ongoing need for improvements in enhancing these covering arrangements.
In particular, some of these covering arrangements are comprised of two panels that manually slide horizontally between closed and and/or open positions. Typically, the user desires to cover or uncover the wall openings, so as to permit light to enter, block off sunlight, establish privacy, permit or restrict entrance of air, or enter or leave an area.
Accordingly, there is a need for a motorized, remote-controllable window blind fixture that would enable a user to automatically position blinds in either coplanar side-by-side relation with one another in superimposed relation with respect to a wall opening, whereby the blinds substantially block the opening, and also to automatically move at least one of the blinds into parallel stacked relation with the other blind and a portion of the wall opening, whereby to substantially open the other portion of the wall opening in order to provide full and unobstructed access to it.
Desirably, the fixture should hold 2 or 2½ inch horizontal wood blinds and contain remote-controlled motorized tracks allowing one blind to move forward from the coplanar position with the other blind, and the other blind to laterally move behind the first to form a parallel superimposed positioning in relation to one another in order to enable complete and effortless uncovering either one or the other side of the wall opening. The blinds can also be opened or closed in any position in relation to the wall opening, and can be raised. Additionally, such a covering arrangement would be compact and mountable in close proximity to the wall opening. It should be simple is operation, inexpensive, and use standard and/or conventional components that are readily available in the marketplace.